Maurene Comey, the daughter of ex-FBI Director James Comey, was fired from her position as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York on Wednesday. She had served in that role for nearly a decade. A Justice Department official confirmed to Fox News that Comey was notified of her termination by the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys.
Comey has worked on a number of high-profile cases for the Department of Justice, including the prosecutions of Sean “Diddy” Combs, Jeffrey Epstein, and Ghislaine Maxwell.
Here’s where the story starts to get interesting. Although the reason for her abrupt dismissal remains unclear, according to Politico’s senior legal affairs reporter Josh Gerstein, she was reportedly “the Justice Dept lawyer who filed the key court declarations to keep the Epstein files from release under #FOIA.”
Gerstein attached an excerpt from a Politico article he co-authored:
Last year, U.S. District Judge Paul Gardephe, a George W. Bush appointee, upheld the FBI’s denial of access to the bulk of the records. The judge’s ruling rested largely on a formal declaration from a federal prosecutor deeply involved in the Epstein and Maxwell prosecutions: Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey, the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey. She argued that disclosure of the investigative records was likely to interfere with the appeal in Maxwell’s case.
Comey’s January 2024 court filing can be viewed here.
Axios reported that she “successfully argued … that the disclosure of investigative records concerning Epstein would likely interfere with Maxwell’s appeal.”
That strikes me as a reasonable concern.
According to Axios:
Leading voices in Trump’s MAGA base have for months called for Maurene Comey’s ouster.Among them was far-right activist Laura Loomer, who responded to news of her firing by calling on X for the dismissal of Maurene Comey’s husband, Lucas Issacharoff, an assistant U.S. attorney in the civil rights division.Loomer has also been leading MAGA calls for the release of the Epstein files.
Obviously, I have no idea why Comey was fired, but this court filing certainly adds new intrigue to the DOJ’s recent announcement that they would not be releasing the Epstein files.
In a Tuesday op-ed published by The Wall Street Journal, famed attorney Alan Dershowitz — who once represented Jeffrey Epstein — explained that the Trump administration could not release the Epstein files because most of the documents are under court-imposed sealing orders. This naturally raises the question: why didn’t the DOJ clarify this, rather than simply announce that there was no evidence to suggest Epstein was murdered or that he kept a client list? They had to anticipate the uproar that would follow.
It’s not shocking that the DOJ would fire Maurene Comey given her father’s contentious history with President Donald Trump.
Last week, sources told Fox News that James Comey, along with former CIA Director John Brennan were “under criminal investigation [by the FBI] for potential wrongdoing related to the Trump–Russia probe.”
According to Fox, “The full scope of the criminal investigations into Brennan and Comey is unclear, but two sources described the FBI’s view of the duo’s interactions as a ‘conspiracy,’ which could open up a wide range of potential prosecutorial options.”
Elizabeth writes commentary for Legal Insurrection and The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY